Spacerunner - the hunter and the hunted
by varjotanssija
Summary: Spacerunners are a species of humans who can transport from place to place. They are very much feared, though only a few remain to this day. Laws have been set and most spacerunners have been enslaved or they have been forced to work under the government. So what happens, when the hunted meets the hunter? Set in AU Pamen, rated M for chapters to come.
1. Chapter 1: Capture

**AUTHORS NOTE (READ TO UNDERSTAND ANYTHING OF THE STORY!)**

So, hello. This is my first story on Fanfiction, so I'm going to see how this goes. My native language is not English, so I do not write perfect grammar. I hope you understand that, but I'll do my best.

There are some basic things you need to know before you read the story! **READ**

*****Spacerunner's are basicly humans with the ability to move from place to place with teleportation. They are hunted and if caught, usually enslaved or forced to work for the government. More to know about the race as the story goes on

*The characters are quite a bit OOC (as an extreme for example Katniss's eyes aren't both grey) and the story is AU

*The story is set in Panem, and there are Districts and President Snow has the power. But there are NO HUNGER GAMES and the districts aren't as poor as in the books. People are allowed to travel between districts. The citizens have more easier access to electrical modern devices, but the differences between wealth are still great.

*Peeta might seem like a big ass in the first chapters, but he's a nice guy :)

I will be posting a chapter probably once a week or so, because I am attending high school and have a lot of work to do since it is my senior year. I will NOT update the story if I don't get at least one review, because I find it quite understanding not to. The next chapter will be about Peeta's past and a little abou Katniss's if anyone's interested!

SO enjoy the story readers!

**CHAPTER ONE**

**PEETA'S POINT OF VIEW (THIRD PERSON)**

****Peeta stood in the shadows of the narrow streets of Disrtict Twelve, just behind the street the Everdeen residence in the Seam of District Twelve. He had been looking for a spacerunner for nearly ten months in three different districts before coming back home and finding one by accident. He was very excited to finally be able to catch one after stalking the girl's movements for 2 days to make sure he would be able to catch her without fault.

_It had been three days ago an hour before sundown when he had caught sight of Katniss. He had met her a few years back and knew she was his age, although not attending school for previously unknown reasons. Now he knew why. He had been visiting the streets of the poorest part of District twelve to attend a delivery for his family's bakery in town. One of the customer's really needed the bread but couldn't come to the bakery because of being bedridden. _

_He had been wlking down the streets and inclined his head slightly to glance down an alleyway to check for anything suspicious. That's when he saw them. Katniss and Primrose Everdeen appeared out of thin air with a slight puff of blue smoke directly on the pavement. Peeta suck in a quick breath and hid behind a wall, peeking around the corner carefully. _

_"Now, Prim, I have to go before someone sees me. Have fun with Rory and say hi to Gale for me. I'm sorry I can't come with you, but there are a lot of people hunting spacerunners around the district nowadays. I'll pick you up at eleven," Katniss said and kissed the yonger one on the top of her head and disappeared again with a puff of blue smoke._

Peeta glanced at his watch and stepped in the middle of the back yard of the small house that the Everdeen's lived in. He had seen Katniss appear here too times at the same time the pas two nights. And this time he had been lucky, since no one was home. And he was ready for her. He kept repeating _'I'm doing this for Delly,' _again and again in his head, because deep down he really didn't want to do this. But she was waiting for her. And this was the only way to find her.

Katniss materialized right on time just before him, her back towards him. Peeta grabbed the collar in his hand tightly and with lightning speed moves he slipped it around the girl's neck and clipped it on. She screamed in terror, but he grabbed her throat and turned her around, blocking her words. Her eyes looked like a terrified does about to be shot. Katniss kept trying to spacerun, he could see it from the way the collar kept giving her small electric shocks. Peeta took the tazer quickly from his pocket and put it on her shoulder, knocking her out. She slacked forward, unconscious, and he took her by the waist, quickly throwing her on his shoulder.

Peeta sighed. The mantra kept playing in his head. He kept thinking, that he would just do this o save Delly and after that Katniss would go home. He wouldn't need to give her to the authorities. It would all be fine.

**KATNISS POV**

****Katniss woke up on an uncomfortable matress in a strange room with a pounding headache. She quickly closed her eyes to shield herself from the light and to think through what had happened. Once the images came back to her, the fear grew stronger. The panick sent her to trying desperately to spacerun anywhere. But every time she tried, a small electric shock was transmitted through the collar on her neck. She didn't dare try to take it off, because she sensed someone else was in there and she wanted to pretend to be asleep. There was no way out and she new she had no way of pretending she wasn't a spacerunner.

All kinds of thoughts ran through her head at that time. Who kidnapped her? Were Prim and Mom alright? She couldn't understand how someone found out about her, she was always so careful using her gift. Would she end up tortured, enslaved and killed like her dad and almost every other spacerunner out there? She was mortified, and a silent tear ran across her cheek. She just wanted to go home. She had read terrible stories about what had happened to spacerunner's caught by the government. And she didn't even know if she was still in District Twelve, or who had abducted her. She had only gotten a glimpse of a big man with light colored hair when she had been caught. Though she had to admit, the kidnapper had done an impressive job.

Spacerunner's had been hunted for centuries. And a few years back, President Snow had set a law legalizing the enslavery of people like her, selling them and the government was doing a big program to locate all of them and forcing them to work for the State. There were only a few of them left free. She only new about herself and Haymitch Abernathy, a drunk spacerunner who had once escaped the Capitol to District Twelve. But he was a broken case, his whole family had been killed because he wouldn't do what the government wanted.

"I know you're awake," came a deep male voice from a few feet away. She felt a light tug aroung her throat, he must've attached a leash to her collar. "Open your eyes."

Katniss opened her eyes slowly, blinking a few times to get used to the light. She was in a tight space, with a small lamp in the ceiling, a mattress, and a small table with a chair. Between her and her captor were thick metal bars, like in a prison cell. The man on the other side was roughly around her age (22) and he was very strongly built - so escaping would be very hard. He had blond hair that curled around the edges and sprakling deep blue eyes. He had a serious and a little annoyed impression on his face - oh, she thought. This would be trouble.

"What do you want from me?" She asked, trying to sound intimidating, but failing miserably. Her voice shook a little.

"My name is Peeta, we've met bfore a long time ago. I want you - because I obviously know you're a spacerunner - to help me find my wife. After we've found her, you'll get to go home and live with your family. If you're unwilling to cooperate, I can always sell you to the government with a high price."

Katniss turned her eyes to the floor. Peeta, as introduced, tugged on the leash, making her tumble a little across the small place to stand before the bars. Another tear fell down her cheek. She was really scared. "Please don't."

"Look, I don't want to hurt you," he said a little more gently. "But I really need a spacerunner to help me find Delly. And I found you. If you help me, you'll be back with your family in a couple of weeks and I'll never tell anyone what you are."

She thought about it for a couple of seconds. But she didn't have a choise. He knew, and due to the collar, she couldn't spacerun. She was at a dead end.

"Do we have a deal?" He asked a little impatiently.

"Yes," Katniss whispered.

"Perfeft," he said smiling crookedly. "We'll leave for the capitol tomorrow morning at dawn."


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER (FORGOT LAST TIME SORRY): I DO NOT OWN THE HUNGER GAMES; THEY BELONG TO SUZANNE COLLINS**

**AUTHORS NOTE:**

****First of all, thank you for all the views, follows and the favorite! I'm so happy since this is my first story here, I hope you enjoy this chapter too!

And special thanks to...:

**Radio Free Death: **I really appreciate your honest critique! It was right on spot. Yes, I do understand it can be annoying when the writer doesn't have perfect grammar, and I'm really trying to do my best on it, and will start looking for a beta as soon as I get the story going. And I hope that you'll find at least some answers to your questions about the story (for example why Peeta acts the way he does) in this chapter! I hope you can still hang in there after this chapter ;) I thought about putting this up as an original story, but I'm still pretty much trying out since I haven't done really any fanfiction except some small rabbles before this. But I take your last comment in serious consideration. And actually, I couldn't help notice you're from Sweden, right? we're almost neighbors :D

**pyroseyes: **thanks so much for the review! it really made me happy :)

This chapter is more of a filler, and doesn't go forward with the story actually at all. Mostly just telling about how the characters got in this situation. I hope you don't get too bored, since it is quite long, but it is really important, since it explains a lot of things that were left very confusing in the last chapter. Oh, and btw, this WILL be an Everlark story, you just have to be patient with me.

**CHAPTER 2 - Thoughts**

**PEETA POV**

****Peeta sat in the second floor of the abandoned house he had hid Katniss in. They would be leaving in about 5 hours, but he couldn't sleep. He just sat in a rocking chair in front of a window, thinking through everything. He had been so much since meeting Delly, to coming to this point, it was still a bit overwhelming.

Having good relations had been very handy in catching a spacerunner. He knew a man who had once actually captured a spacerunner and sold him to the Capitol. The man's name was Brutus, and he had also given Peeta the equipment he needed to get a hold of his spacerunner. Brutus had given him the collar, but also two bracelets, that when being wore by a space runner and a human, the human would spacerun wherever the runner was going at the same time. The only problem with this was, that it wore the spacerunner down easily, since teleporting two people was much more exhausting than one person.

Peeta was well aware Katniss wouldn't be able to spacerun more than 100 miles at a time, so he had done research regarding all the stops they would have to be making. The fact that the teleporting would be wearing Katniss down easily, had forced him to figure out two places they would need to rest during the trim. It frustrated him, but he knew killing the spacerunner from exhaustion wasn't a good idea since he has been looking for one so long.

He felt a little nervous. He had been planning this for a really long time to make sure everything would be perfect (since the plan didn't really lean on if he would begin the journey to Capitol from District Twelve or Four). But it could all crumble very easily and it did lean heavily on the fact that they actually would find clues regarding what had happened to Delly in Capitol without being daught.

The good thing was, that he had the spacerunner called Katniss behind locked doors above him, weaing a collar that ensured she wasn't going anywhere without him. It was a bit cruel, he admitted it, but noting would stop him now from getting what he wanted. Along the long night, he memorized all the things that had led to this moment.

**Twelve years ago (ten years old)**

It had been exactly twelve years and three days since he first met Delly. He had been 10 years old and making his first delivery service for his family's bakery around town. Delly's family owned the shoe store not too far from the bakery.

Delly's house (they lived above the store) was about as big as the Mellark family's house. Mr. Cartwright was a very big, balding man, but very nice to children that sometimes roamed around the store.

"Hello, I came to deliver your weekly bread delivery!" Peeta said with a bid smile on his face.

"Oh, you must be Peeta. Let me just get the money. You can chat with my daughter in the mean time. Delly, step away from around the wall!" The man called, and a girl Peeta vaguely recognized from his class stepped around the corner. She had shiny, curly blond hair and big blue eyes. Just like almost every girl from the Merchant area.

"Hi, my name is Delly," she said a little shyly.

"I'm Peeta, nice to meet you."

They talked all the time until Mr. Cartwright came back. And they met again in school the day after (since they were on the same class - though they hadn't really noticed each other before then). Soon enough they were best friends and did nearly everything together. Both of their parents agreed on their friendship, since it was common practise for Merchants only to marry other Merchants.

**6 years ago (16 years old)**

After one of Peeta's two older brothers, Rye, died due to a bad case of influenza, the whole family was devastated. Rye had been supposed to marry soon after his death day and Mrs. Mellark was afterwards very interested in finding a proper woman for Peeta to marry.

After the memorial service, Peeta and Delly had been sitting behind the bakery talking.

"Are you okay?" Delly asked with a worried look on her face.

"Not really," Peeta sighed deeply. "But I will be, some day..." He didn't get to continue speaking, because Delly grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled his lips to hers. The kiss was very short, and soon Delly pulled away with her face red as a tomatoes.

"So-sorry..." She mumbled, but was soon cut off by Peeta's lips bak on hers. And since then, they had been together. He had proposed two years later, and they had wedded a few months after that. They had been a very happy couple. Nothing seemed to be able to break them apart. Peeta worked in his family's bakery and they had a nice rented apartment not too far from where both their families lived.

And then too soon afterwards, everything started going down hill.

**Two years ago (20 years old)**

Peeta and Delly were walking towards their home, when Delly suddenly started coughing very drastically. The coughing fit didn't seem to end and Peeta started to really worry.

"Delly!" He anxiously asked after she was again able to catch her breath. "Are you okay, do you need a doctor?"

Delly stumbled a little with her words, but was soon again abl to find her voice. "I'm okay, no need for a doctor," she mumbled. But when she lowered the hand she had been holding in front of her mouth, Peeta couldn't help notice the blood on her slender hands.

"Hey!" He shouted, and gently grabbed the hand Delly was trying to hide behind her back. "You coughed up blood! You need to see a doctor! How are you feeling, are you dizzy?" He asked frantically, searching for signs of illness on her face.

"I'm fine. It has happened before. I-I... I've already been to a doctor..." She said, a blush creeping on to her face and she sounded a little embarrassed.

"WHAT?!" Peeta nearly screeched.

"Please don't yell..."

"I'm sorry," Peeta said more gently and wrapped his arms around her small waist, pulling her tightly to him. "What did the doctor say? Why didn't you tell me anything?"

"It started around a month ago. I haven't been feeling very well, and you've been really busy with the bakery. The doctors did some tests on me while you had to stay at the bakery for a few nights to take care of the orders. They found out I have some unknown disease that's slowly weakening my nerve system. They said I would be starting to lose feeling in some parts of my body probably some time soon. It's a game of odds now. Nothing might even happen." She turned her face towards the ground. "I didn't want to worry you, you had so many other things keeping you busy and with your mother's illness too..."

"Oh my... I'm so - so sorry... You still should've told me. It's going to be okay. I promise. I won't let anything bad happen to you..." He cooed, his face pressed against her hair.

Unfortunately, things just started to go down hill from there. A few months after the first conversation, Delly started to lose feeling in a couple of her toes. A few months after that, she couldn't walk anymore. The illness was spreading rapidly.

**One year ago**

Delly had been sent to the Capitol for treatment with nearly all the money they could manage. Doctors and medicine had eaten a big amount of their paychecks and dry seasons hadn't really been good for the bakery service. Money was tight for everyone. They had gotten a few letters from the Capitol doctors telling them Delly was making slow, but steady progress. The letters said she was gaining a small amount of felling back in her right foot.

But then, it seemed like Delly disappeared. No letters came to District Twelve. Their money seemed to disappear to thin air. No one told them anything and the phone line they had been given seemed to have been cut off. When they got in contact with anyone, they told them that there never had been such a patient as Delly Cartwright in the hospital. Still, suddenly there came a letter to District twelve regarding that they had mistaken Delly for someone else, when Peeta had been asking for her and that she had just recently died in the Capitol care.

Peeta was devastated, and couldn't really undertand anything that had happened. He didn't want anything to do with anyone. He shut himself off from everyone around him. He became a very angry person and mostly just watched as many news as possible to get to know anything that could lead him to how this mistake had come to be in the first place. He was determined to get to the bottom of this, but he didn't have the money at the time.

Then, suddenly, ten months ago he saw something shocking on the daily reality show regarding the Capitol's ridiculous lifestyle. They zoomed in for a moment on some celebrity, but just behind the man was Delly. Her hair was cut short and a different color, and her eyes seemed to be empty. She looked a little lost. But Peeta could recognize her from anywhere. Another thing that shocked him, was that she was really standing. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

He turned his coffee table upside down and screeched loudly. There were so many emotions going through his head along with a million questions. He was so, so angry, furious even. But on the other hand he was happy, because this gave him a spark of hope. He could find her. Find her and bring her home. But something was very much wrong with her, he could see it in her eyes. Even though she had only been on the screen for a few seconds, he knew her well enough to know.

Another question was fresh on his mind. Why on Earth was she on some reality show? Standing? And why would the Capitol put her on a TV show, when there surely was a chance someone could recognize her, since they hadn't done any surgeries on her face. Everything about it was just wrong. So many questions unanswered, and so many things making it nearly impossible for him to have any chance of finding her. But he wasn't going to give up. He was going to find a spacerunner.

**Present day**

He had been doing research for a long time. Delly didn't appear on TV again - or he didn't just notice. The decision to search for a spacerunner had been almost immediate. He knew of them, and he knew he would need one to find Delly. He had also found out more about people who had been sick and never come back from the Capitol once sent there. But he seemed to be the only one pursuing the issue. Or everyone else was dead or captured already.

But now he had found a spacerunner. He had done his research. And he had a plan. He wasn't going to stop until he found his answers.

**KATNISS POV**

Katniss sat in the corner of the small room she had been locked in on the cold cement floor. She had tried to pry the collar off her neck, but hadn't succeeed. It must have some kind of finger print lock or something. Peeta had left a couple of hours ago, telling her to sleep while she still could. Well, that had been easier said than done.

Her mind was so full of questions she knew she wouldn't get the answer to anytime soon. She knew nothing of the man who had captured her, although he had said they had met before. She was a little certain he might be one of the two sons of the Mellark bakery. She had a vague memory of them having a son named Pete or Peeta or something like that. But that wasn't the only mystery. Why would his wife be in the Capitol, since nearly no one from Twelve ever got to visit the place? Everything was just so confusing. She was stuck with a man, a spacerunning preventing collar around her neck, in a house that might not even be anywhere near the Seam. And besides, even if she would be able to get the collar off and run, Peeta knew what she was.

Katniss leaned her chin on her knees, curling tighter around herself. Peeta must've seen her two days ago, when she spaceran to drop Prim off at the Hawthorne residense. How stupid she had been! She had done it a million times. After checking a million times while going thee that no one ever walked around ther eat that hour. A stupid slip-off and now she was captured. Prim and Mom had to be worrying sick after her.

She knew she wouldn't be able to fight Peeta off. He was a very big, muscled man. She was tall for a girl, but poverty wasn't exactly doing her very good on building muscle mass. She did hunt, in the woods outside District Twelve. One good side was, that she could spacerun there without the fear of being caught at the border. Spacerunning also came very handy in hunting.

She had also met Gale in the woods. Though gladly he hadn't caught her spacerunning. But both their families had been low on food, and eventually Katniss had been able to trust him enough to tell him about what she was. The Hawthornes were good people, and she owed them in so many different ways. His father had also died in the same mine explosion her dad had escaped from.

Her dad had also been a spacerunner. But he didn't want to take much advantage of it. He worked in the mines with other men and loved his family. Katniss's mother was originally from the merchant area. But she had fell in love with her father in school and made the decision to live in the Seam with her love. One day though, there had been an explosion in the mines due to an accident. And since sometimes, when scared, spacerunners teleport on instinct, her father had made it out with spacerunning. The problem was, that the peacekeepers outside the mines captured him right on the spot. He was accused of setting the bomb off, knowing he would make it out with spacerunning. He had been taken to the Capitol, and eventually killed there. This, and other incidents similar had led to the capturing, enslaving and torturing spacerunners. This had happened around 10 years ago, when Katniss was still a child.

Afterwards, the Everdeen family had been studied very closely. It was already commonly known, that spacerunners had a golden ring of color around their pupils that would shine slightly when in a completely dark place. Katniss was born with two different colored eyes. One blue eye, like her mother's and sister's, and one grey eye with the gold around the pupil. They had been able to fool the peacekeepers, saying that she wasn't a spacerunner. She had been watched closely for quite some time afterwards, studying if anything would set off a teleporting reaction like her fathers when the mine exploded. Luckily they left her alone before they invented new ways to identify spacerunners.

They never really had had time to grieve the loss of the father of the family. They had to keep going so Katniss wouldn't be captured. Even though her mother's eyes nearly lost all color, she went going and did everything to prevent losing another family member to the horrors of the President's hunt for spacerunners.

It was still a few hours from dawn, and she was exhausted. But the sleep didn't come. Only the nightmares of the past kept playing around and around in her head. A few tears went down her cheeks that night, but no calm came her way.

**ANOTHER SMALL AUTHORS NOTE**

So, reviews are still greatly appreciated. This chapter didn't have much dialogue, but I hope you still liked it. It might be even a week until the next update, so hang on my lovely readers!


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